Appeal No. 2006-1273
Application No. 10/420,400
The Claimed Invention
Claim 1 is the only independent claim on appeal and reads:
1. A process for producing a high purity tetraphenylphosphonium phenolate that
at room temperature is in liquid form comprising
(i) reacting tetraphenylphosphonium halide with phenol in an aqueous-alkaline
solution at temperatures of 0 to 55 °C, wherein molar ratio of phenol to
tetraphenylphosphonium halide is 11.1 to 15 and at pH values of 9.5 to 11
and,
(ii) upon completion of the reaction of (i) adding thereto alcohol in an amount
sufficient to separate the aqueous phase from the organic phase, the weight
ratio of aqueous reaction solution to alcohol being in the range of 2:1 to 1:2
and wherein the solubility of the alcohol in pure water is < 20 wt%.
Claims 2-5 depend upon claim 1. Appellants have stated that all of the claims stand or
fall together (Appeal Brief, page 3).
The Prior Art
König et al. disclose a process for producing phosphonium phenolates, including
tetraphenylphosphonium phenolates (all of the working examples). The process includes
reacting tetraphenylphosphonium halide with phenol in an aqueous-alkaline solution at a
temperature of 0 to 55 °C, wherein the molar ratio of phenol to phosphonium halide is
between 2:1 to 10:1 and the pH is 9.5 to 11 (e.g., König et al.’s claim 1). The 2 working
examples use molar ratios of 5:1 and 10:1 (col. 4, lines 54-55; col. 5, lines 6-7). The
example with the 10:1 molar ratio yields a product in liquid form (col. 5, lines 19-20).
König et al.’s preferred mode of operation also adds to the reaction mixture a
“sparingly soluble” alcohol, having a solubility in water of at most 15 wt. %, “to facilitate
the working-up procedure, since the phenol/alcohol mixture has a lower density than the
aqueous solution and thus the organic phase is above the aqueous phase. The aqueous
2
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